Despite cuts, tuition increase lowest in 10 years

A budget proposal by university officials that aimed to cut 5 percent from the base budget for fiscal year 2010 was unanimously passed by trustees.

Seattle University's 26-person board of trustees passed the budget proposal in its meeting Feb. 19 without changes, according to Ron Smith, vice president for finance and business affairs. Tuition will increase 3.8 percent or roughly $1,074 for undergraduates in the coming school year. That is the lowest tuition increase at Seattle U in 10 years, Smith said.

Graduate program tuition rates will increase by 3.5 percent while law students will see tuition increase the most at 4.8 percent.

"Keeping the annual tuition adjustments lower is one way we are recognizing the difficulties faced by students and their families in this economy," wrote President Stephen Sundborg, S.J. in an e-mail to the university Feb. 27, the university's first public announcement of the trustees' decision.

The approved proposal also increased financial aid awards from the university by $1.4 million in order to counteract Washington state funding some students might lose.

The approved budget will be passed to budget managers in departments across campus in the next two weeks. At that stage, leaders will decide what they may need to cut-whether it is classes, operating expenses or employees.

Unlike the 5 percent cut made in November to the fiscal year 2009 budget, the approved plan will take funds from both the operating and salary budgets because salary expenditures account for the majority-around 70 percent-of Seattle U's costs. The 5 percent deduction made in November, representing around $2 million, will not be returned to the 2010 budget in the current proposal, Smith said.

The base cut will save the university an additional $3 million, bringing the total budget cuts to $5.4 million, Smith said.

University officials have said they are doing everything possible to avoid laying off faculty or staff. The proposal passed by trustees will not give faculty and staff living-wage raises this year, though $300,000 extra has been set aside for those at the lowest pay levels.

"I wouldn't anticipate very many [layoffs] at all," Smith said. "You might see one or two."

Smith said his Finance and Business Affairs division will most likely cut travel costs, supply expenditures and eliminate two empty positions. He said Facilities Services will be hit the hardest by the cuts in funding for planned maintenance and small capital projects.

Smith said he hasn't heard complaints from faculty and staff because of the cuts, despite the absence of raises this year.

Professor John Dienhart, an endowed chair in Albers, also said faculty and staff might be nervous, especially after layoffs at the University of Washington. But he hasn't heard anyone complaining over the lack of a raise.

"I'm sure the UW layoffs make people nervous," said Dienhart, who specializes in business ethics. "But I think the actions senior management has already taken show there will be every effort to treat everyone here equally well."

Dienhart and other professors said they thought it's admirable that extra funding has been allocated for the lowest paid employees.

"I'm glad to be part of a university that does that," he said.

For his part, Dienhart's not upset about losing a raise.

"I would take one," he said. "But if it meant that other people would be fired-then no, I wouldn't want that raise."